2015 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction finalists revealed

The B.C. Achievement Foundation announced the shortlist for the 11th annual B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction on Wednesday.

The award aims to “celebrate a genre that stimulates our national conversation and shares knowledge about the complex world in which we live,” recognizing works of criticism, biography, memoir, history, literary journalism, and essays.

This year’s jury of Globe and Mail arts editor Jared Bland, journalist and writer John Fraser, and Simon Fraser University chancellor Anne Giardini selected the following finalists from the longlist released last month:

James Raffan, Circling the Midnight Sun: Culture and Change in the Invisible Arctic (HarperCollins)

“This year’s shortlisted books, as diverse as their subjects are, share the trait of being universally important and informative about the world we live in today,” said BCAF chair Keith Mitchell in a press release. “We thank the jury for their work in narrowing the field of 134 books nominated for this year’s prize to these finalists.”

Each of the finalists will receive $2,500 and the winner will be presented with the $40,000 prize at a ceremony in Vancouver in February.